So I've been restricting cals now for about 2 weeks...about 2 months ago at the dr I was weighed @ 252 and that was beyond frightening. At that point I started taking the dog longg walks and controlling my eating much more, cut out most sugar and sodas, snacking, fast food.. before I decided to go for 1400-1600 cals a day, and I am finding most days I am doing around 1200. I feel like logically I should probably be a good bit less than that. I just cant get on the scale for some reason?? I am afraid it will be more than that or not much less than that.. I dont know. Right now I am planning on stepping on the scale July 1st.. but with that coming up now I keep telling myself I should wait til August so I can really see a difference.

What is this??? Anyone else have scale fear

Then don't step on a scale. There is nothing that says you need to. Continue eating right and exercising. If you are feeling better and noticing your close getting looser, then you know you are doing something.

A few people on this site have done pant sizes instead of weights - like starting at a 20 and hoping for a 10 and getting down size by size.

I do implore you though to take a before photo if you haven't and take your measurements. This will help you deal with the "Am I smaller?" stuff that tends to mess with our heads.

I have taken pics! Pant size may be a good idea til I feel like I can face the scale again. Thank you. My clothes are fitting looser. Right now that may be good enough. I will need to to eventually since in my head I am obsessing about knowing the #. in the past I've always gotten extremely frustrated to see it go up for any reason.. and I fluctuate big time during that time of the month - like up to 10 lbs. just kills me.

I didn't weigh myself at all during my entire period of intentional weight loss---not even for a starting weight. I tend to get discouraged VERY easily, and I knew that if I saw the number, it might make me so discouraged that I wouldn't even try to lose weight. So, I focused on changing my habits (eating better, eating less, and moving more), and I knew that eventually, I would lose weight if I consistently did those behaviors. And I did--much faster than I even thought I would. I started my plan in the second week of June 2011, and I did not weigh myself until the week after Thanksgiving, and by then, I was even lower than my [somewhat-randomly-chosen] goal weight.

wow! you've done an amazing job too! congrats. thanks for responding, very nice to see someone who succeeded this way

I have a friend who decided to become healthier, she never once stepped on the scale and started watching what she ate. She looks amazing now at whatever weight she is at.

lin43- that is so cool! I love it!

The scale can cause emotional issues! I say ditch it if you want to.

Every one here has good advice.

When I first started it took me about three months to get on the scale. I was planning on just going by clothing fit. Eventually I started calerie counting and I had to enter my weight into my calerie tracker phone app so I could get a calerie plan. I am glad I did because now I can track how far I have come.